Geno Smith: Seahawks final play in loss at Cowboys design had Micah Parsons unblocked
Finals seconds. Game — and likely the Seahawks’ chances to win their division and have home playoff games — on the line.
A big, final chance for a season-reviving upset of the rolling Cowboys in Dallas.
There’s no way offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s play design for Seattle’s last offensive snap Thursday night was to have right tackle Abe Lucas block down inside and leave Dallas All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parson unblocked off the edge to hit Geno Smith and affect his incomplete pass on fourth down with 71 seconds left and the Seahawks down 41-35.
Is there?
“You know, it is the design,” Smith said.
“He had the squeeze, the right tackle had the squeeze (down inside against inside rusher DeMarcus Lawrence) right there versus zero (blitz, no safeties in the middle of the field).
“So he did the right thing.”
According to Smith, the play design was while letting Parsons (11 1/2 sacks in Dallas’ first 11 games) blitz in free on Smith, Seahawks running back DeeJay Dallas was to get past him in the backfield from the opposite, left hash mark into the right flat. That in itself was nearly Mission: Impossible. Smith was to throw his swing pass around the unencumbered Parsons to Dallas, who would then run the 4 yards for the first down.
Dallas got caught in traffic coming across the formation in the backfield a yard or so behind the line. That traffic was Parsons, whowas so free and so close in on Smith, the quarterback’s pass barely got through him. It landed short, not catchable for Dallas. Incomplete pass. Turnover on downs at midfield.
Game — and likely NFC West-title hopes — gone for the now 6-6 Seahawks. After this 41-35 loss, Seattle has lost four of its last five games.
Lucas echoed his quarterback in saying the play went as expected, except for the part about Smith throwing it around the flying, 6-foot-3, 250-pound menace that was Parsons.
“That very last play on offense, it was a zero pressure, so I have to do what is called a sift,” said Lucas, who started his first game since week one 2 1/2 months ago, coming off a knee injury and injured reserve. “So I have to come down so as not to leave the middle free.
“A lot of people don’t really know that. So it looks like, it would look like we just let him run off the edge. No, that is the rule of protection.
“There was a method to the madness, so to speak.”
“Madness” indeed, letting one of the sport’s elite pass rushers come in unblocked on fourth and 4 with the game at stake.
Another issue with the final play: It wasn’t an all-out “zero” blitzes of safeties leaving no Cowboys defender in the middle of the field. Dallas had five defensive backs down the field in coverage. It was six Cowboys rushers on five blockers — with Parsons the choice to leave unblocked.
The Seahawks gaining 406 yards and scoring 35 points was wasted at the end.
“We were really one catch away from really making this thing go our way,” coach Pete Carroll said.
Shane Waldron had Geno Smith humming
Before the fourth quarter, Waldron was doing what he needed to to help Smith, what Carroll had said this week must happen. Waldron had Smith playing perhaps his best game, given the opponent was the 9-3 Cowboys on the road, for the first three quarters.
The previous week the offensive coordinator’s game plan was to throw deep on San Francisco. That failed. The 49ers sacked Smith six times in their 31-13 win. Seattle didn’t score an offensive touchdown.
Amid the Seahawks’ latest loss, Waldron may have found a formula for Smith and his passing game the rest of the season.
NFL NextGen Stats said Smith was pressured on 54.5% of his drop backs through Thursday night’s first three quarters. That was the highest rate he’d faced in a game. But Smith was not sacked to that point. His average time to throw was 2.42 seconds, Smith’s quickest time in a game as a Seahawks starter.
Seattle completed 9 of its first 11 third downs, after entering the game 29th in the NFL at 31% on those conversions.
Smith finished 23 for 41 passing for 334 yards, three touchdown throws to DK Metcalf (tying Metcalf’s career high) and an interception by Dallas’ DaRon Bland. That was thrown behind Tyler Lockett on an out route on third down, when a throw outside in front of Lockett would have been another first down.
“Just getting the ball out,” Smith said. “I thought Shane called a great game. He called an amazing game. The receivers ran great routes. The protection was awesome…The whole o-line played phenomenally.
“They gave us a good chance to make plays and guys made good plays.”
Until the final, awful play.
“For our guys to bounce back (from the loss to the 49ers) and play against a great football team at home — they’ve got this big win streak and all of that and they’re legit as can be — (it was) right down to the end,” Carroll said. “There’s no concession to losing, but we will definitely build on this. Because the execution, the come-through and toughness, and the physicality of it, because of the respect we have for them, all of those things are of course things we can build on.
“There’s all kinds of stuff that’s going to happen. The story’s not told, what’s going to happen. We’ve got great chances again in the next couple of weeks against teams that are worthy of being on top of this thing at the end.
“And we’re going to show the world we’re worthy of being right there with them.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2023 at 12:00 AM.
